The present invention relates to a dog kennel that is easy to ship and assemble.
Modular or portable dog and animal kennels are known. They basically comprise a series of panels that can be coupled together to form an enclosure. However, these dog and animal kennels have a number of drawbacks and disadvantages. One of the principal disadvantages is that dog and animal kennel designs of the past have been such that the kennel cannot be formed or arranged into a compact package. As a result the shipping costs of these dog and animal kennels has been particularly high. Indeed, in some cases, it is conceivable that the shipping costs alone would exceed the costs of the raw materials that go into making the animal or dog kennel. This is particularly problematic for manufacturers that desire to provide a simple and inexpensive dog kennel that can be sold at mass merchandise outlets. Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a portable or modular dog kennel kit that can be assembled into a compact package where the kennel can be shipped economically.
The present invention comprises a set of panels adapted to be shipped in a nested fashion.
The panels are selectively secured to one another by two or more connectors. The two connectors may be chosen from three different types: a gate connector, a stepped connector, and a v-connector. To achieve the nested shipping structure, one of every two panels is smaller than the other to the extent that its exterior frame fits within the exterior frame of the larger panel.